functional illiterate

i've officially come to the conclusion that our society caters to the functionally illiterate.

i realized this last night while noticing the sexy new pedestrian traffic lights (that's walk/don't walk signs for you playing along at home) in the neighborhood. these zippy little things project superbright images of a red hand and strange walking yellowish white person to govern the pedestrian. at first, i was pretty pleased by this. new! exciting! functional!

and then i realized that there were no words. and then i realized why.

could it truly be that people could not read the words "walk" and "don't walk?"

have we slipped that far in our educational standards? the answer, i fear, is a resounding yes. further reinforced by noticing the signs in the neighborhood. "flowers shop." "we delivery." stuff like that.

"but," i hear you cry,"you live in brooklyn! have you not stopped to think that maybe, just maybe english is not the first language of these people? cut them some slack!"

to which i say: ...to which i say i'm not going to say what i was going to say, because it's actually going to make me sound like a fascist. which is not how i feel.

so, we'll try this again later, shall we?